Chapter 28. Secrets

The rain falls at a steady drizzle, slowly growing into a battering shower that hits the back of the boy’s head. He looks down at his bruised arms as they lay in his lap; he could still feel the blood caked onto his hands. All he can do is focus on the rhythm of his wheezing breaths, the air grating his windpipe as it passes through. The shadows of the people of the street make the light in front of him dim and brighten, until a darkness envelops him, unwavering.

“You saw it, right?” a deep voice asks. “The beast.” Hazy memories of echoing screams and crashing makes the boy go completely still, his breath silent. The figure kneels down in front of him. “How would you like to hunt it down?” Hunt it down? What a joke. As if he could… the boy feels his hands ball up and his teeth clench in frustration at it all.

“Get up.”

The boy remains limp and seated, then he cries out as a hand painfully twists his hair and lifts his head. “You deaf? I said ‘get up,’” and he let g